“Wow, I’m impressed!” exclaimed Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz during a small question and answer session held at the Porter County Career and Technical Center on May 8th, during Ritz’s tour of Northwest Indiana. A select group of teachers and their students, representative of each school in the Valparaiso school system, gathered to greet Ritz, each prepared with three questions to ask the Superintendent. Topics ranging from her favorite Caldecott book to school ratings and combating drug usage in the schools were touched on, offering Ritz the chance to personally respond. “Those are the toughest questions I’ve had! What a great forum to do it!”
Valparaiso was fortunate to be one of the Superintendent’s stops thanks to Middle School Visual Arts teacher and Valparaiso Teacher Association President Juanagene Nietert, who personally invited Ritz to visit. “I had seen her on her campaign trail, donated to her campaign, saw her legislative breakfast. She promised she would come and she’s here! I’m delighted!”
The Career Center offered the perfect setting for Ritz’s visit, as the school reaches students county-wide, and offers chances to learn valuable career skills before entering the adult world. “We do try to recruit influential people to come. I think it’s really neat for my students to meet important people,” shared Jon Groth, Principal at the center. “I like for the kids to get a chance to meet these people. They’re able to meet people who they wouldn’t otherwise get to."
For time efficiency, the student names were drawn out of a basket, allowing for the majority of questions to be asked within the short time Ritz had to offer the group. Some of the questions asked included:
What change would you like to see in Indiana schools?
“Lots of change. I think the change I want to happen the most is not to have a pass/fail test in third grade for reading.”
Do we have any plans for education for children in Riley’s hospital, for the kids who miss a lot of school?
“There’s already a process in place for education for students who need to have homebound education. Hopefully they are getting that type of education even within their own setting.”
Are there any changes you see happening for younger kids?
“I’m hoping to have early childhood programs in place. We do have full funding for kindergarten that is going to happen next year. Within early learning, I’m taking a look at what’s going on in our preschools that we have in many of our public schools already and how it’s being funded and what it looks like because Indiana is one of 12 states who has no preschool.”
“I’m hoping for growth model measures rather than pass/fail.”
Some schools are choosing to use iPads and computers and eliminate textbooks. Do you think this is a good idea and that more schools will be doing this soon?
“I love the use of technology. I am a Library Science teacher, Media Specialist. Involving technology in our education is something we should all be doing. However, I think all schools should have equal access to technology. Do I think we can always go always technology based? No, not at all. Technology always has its place in what we do. Equal access is what I think we should have.”
What makes a child from a lower income area worth more to the state funding wise than a child from a middle class area?
“That’s based really upon research. A child that is at risk and doesn’t have the supports in their home life typically needs more supports around them. In Indiana, our age to attend school is 7. We don’t mandate kindergarten. A lot of times we get students in the first grade that have not been to kindergarten, they have not been to preschool and they have not had the home support to have their language skills developed. Typically those children that come in at first grade that way are two years behind learning. We have to spend more dollars, so to speak, to catch up. The first more dollars is actually usually retaining that child in kindergarten so that they learn their numbers and have a basis in letters before we can put them in first grade. It always costs more money to retain students. It has been shown that students in poverty have need of more services in order to be educated. That’s really the premise behind it; however, I think the funding formula, the base number that everyone should get, is not high enough to do what we need to do in our schools. We need to put in place mechanisms to make sure everyone is on an equal playing level.”
Why did you decide to leave the classroom and run for State Superintendent?
“I’ve always been involved in my school district to make education policy. When IREAD 3 came out, and decided to retain third grade students who didn’t pass that test, a test has never taught anybody to read. That just went against everything I believe in as a reading teacher. So I went to some people and said ‘Who’s running for Superintendent of Public Instruction? I think I can do that job.’ I didn’t aspire to do this ever, but I felt compelled to do it.”
Why aren’t the fine arts more encouraged in the Indiana school system?
“They’re about to be encouraged! Why haven’t they been is because we’ve been focused on math and language arts for a long time. Also, how we earn credits at the high school level has deterred students taking some of those courses because they have so many other courses that they must take in order to be college ready. I actually want to take a look at all of that, see how students earn credits and open that up more. I believe in a balanced curriculum.”
“I really believe strongly that our schools are a reflection of our community,” Ritz went on to say. “When you have issues in the schools, they’re also in the community. So as a community, we need to be aware of our resources.”